Hi again!
Last week I asked about what you wanted to see in future Dev Diaries and I’ll answer one of the questions you asked in this week’s DD. What would I like to add/change in CK2?
I’ll start off telling you what I like with CK2.
What sets CK2 apart from me are the numerous stories it produces. When I play it at work (yeah, that’s something I try to do when I’m not too stressed out), I often feel the urge to tell people on the team what happened to my characters. Like when I’ve sent out my first born son to join the Varangian guard and he comes back a homosexual and suddenly I’m playing a Norse Viking, the King of Sweden who has a lover bodyguard. There are very few computer games that allow for that gaming experience.
The other component that I think makes most PDS games fantastic is multiplayer. Sure it’s not the smoothest multiplayer experience you can have, but it’s one of the most rewarding. Just the scope of battling through hours and hours of gameplay, forming and breaking alliances, planning, plotting, make it fantastic, be it in Sengoku, March of the Eagles, Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings. CK2 adds the personal touch and story building upon that. In our current office multiplayer, we had one player seducing two popes (pope and antipope), giving them and another player the lover’s pox while another player became emperor of the HRE (we were all playing inside it). The new emperor was unfit to rule and soon we had revolts eating us up from the inside and France wanting a piece of the cake from the outside. A faction to remove our emperor formed and soon Magnus ‘the cruel’ was no longer the emperor and I got the opportunity (read punishment) of trying to bring order to the realm. I struggled for a couple of months, trying to patch together something resembling an army of what was left and slowly beating back some of our enemies. Magnus ‘the cruel’ had other plans though and managed to ambush and capture me during my travels. I was immediately beheaded and a new emperor rose to the throne. Several years later we managed to catch and kill Magnus and restore order to the empire. About the same time Dirk ‘the devil’, a former rebel of the empire, became our new emperor.
To me this is great entertainment. It’s more than just the game.
What I really want more of in CK is stuff that make our characters more important and more alive. I don’t feel strongly for any particular part of the map, religion or government, I just want more interesting characters and more ways to interact with them and for them to interact with you. As a project lead I also have a burning desire to focus on quality making sure we deliver bug free product with great performance. Those are difficult goals for a game that was ambitious to start with and then has been extended for over 2½ years.

A little teaser info that will be discussed more in future DDs.

 

[PG908]

I do hope that the mongols bookmark, and a few other bookmark-related things, are fixed in the accompanying patch. They don't start with enough population to launch additional tribal invasions, so you can only sit in persia.

I'm assuming the DLC will fix tactics and hopefully add more control over how levies work, possibly in a doctine-like or focus-like* way that would retrain the levies into the desired type over time, with a soft limit.

*Possibly like the character focus or like the national focus in victoria 2.

 

[Xinkc]

My only hope is that armies don't march halfway across the world in shattered retreats. It is ridiculous in EU4 where an army defeated on one border marches thousands of miles to a fort in some remote corner on the other side of your empire.

I thought that was more of a thing if you were in larger provinces like those in Arabia, the Steepes, and Siberia. Shattered retreat in EU4 is limited to 8 provinces at most which would obviously cover different distances depending on where the loss occurred. I think the feature could potentially work well in CK2 if it was limited to 4 counties of marching. It gives one some time to reinforce and gives morale a chance to recover morale a bit. This could definitely help when stupid things like a character dying causing there realm to drop out of a war they joined and thus their troops magically exit an ongoing battle and no longer contribute.

 

[Nameless_Ensign]

work well in CK2 if it was limited to 4 counties of marching

I'm already dreading fighting over the Steppes.

Or Tribal lands, attrition is going to ravage your army while you wait around for them to finish 'retreating'. Maybe they are trying to buff Tribals since they kind of suck now?

 

[Xinkc]

I'm already dreading fighting over the Steppes.

Or Tribal lands, attrition is going to ravage your army while you wait around for them to finish 'retreating'. Maybe they are trying to buff Tribals since they kind of suck now?

If this is a hint towards a shattered retreat function and if it follows EU4 rules for it to any degree I don't see how that would be much of a problem. An army defeated is currently much diminished if it reaches the point one would imagine shattered retreat would take effect. I haven't played that far east in a while though, it's possible that attrition would be that bad for such a small force but I doubt it.

 

[Nameless_Ensign]

I meant attrition for the attacking forces. Assaulting Russia in the winter (yes, historically this was suicide, shhh for a moment) would whittle down your troops that when your enemies finally finished their shattered retreat you'd be evenly matched again.

 

[Redwulf_Storm]

Title of next expansion:
Crusader Kings 2: The Yellow-Bellies
Instabuy!

 

[KelrynGrey]

What I really want more of in CK is stuff that make our characters more important and more alive. I don’t feel strongly for any particular part of the map, religion or government, I just want more interesting characters and more ways to interact with them and for them to interact with you.
View attachment 139924

I would really like it if there were more frequently events tied to characters my ruler is married to, in love with, has taken into concubinage, rivals with, or related to - children, etc... when they die, betray me, or something happens in their lives I want my ruler to have the opportunity to react. As it stands now when my king's favorite concubine dies I have to remember that the courtier that popped up was actually the concubine, not just a random woman in the court. I want the ability to have a funeral for my sons and daughters, or to swear bitter revenge upon the person who killed them. If the King of Denmark raids my land and steals my daughter to be his concubine I want the ability to declare a war that can only end with her return or his death. If he kills her I want to be able to kill him. If he dies before I get him let me ransom her back at a steep price. Anything for my ruler's family.

Edit: Essentially I guess I want a little expansion to the Rivalry CB.

 

[Knotz]

I don't play whatever game this is a feature of but if this is just gonna be a thing where beaten armies can't be touched until they reach some far away location it's going to be exceedingly obnoxious. Just imagine the horror of playing whack-a-mole with an independence revolt in the ERE.

 

[Ethanol]

I also feel strongly about personal narratives, the games that I manage to play for hundreds of years are always the ones where I can build my own narrative with fun facts and events. There is something just awesome with how after 300 hours of play the game still manages to surprise you with events you never saw coming.

But yeah since the last patches performance has been increasingly problematic (I don't have top level hardware).

Anyway it's nice to see your vision for the game, I also appreicate the effort of writing a DD even though it is too early to start showing new features

 

[GeneralPetrov]

making sure we deliver bug free product with great performance.

Uhhhhh...

 

[Pyramid_Head]

Please, fix adultery and seduction. WoL is goddamn broken!

 

[Lord_P]

Flanders and Aquitaine for France

Edit: And I will keep posting this until it happens.

 

[stoneroots]

White Flag?. Surrender Option?.

 

[stars2heaven]

I would really like more ways to interact with various characters, especially between rulers of other realms. I feel like there should be more than just plotting going on between me and the count / duke / king / emperor next door. There can be times when everything outside your realm feels like it's only there to farm territory.

 

[Nameless_Ensign]

Flanders and Aquitaine for France

Edit: And I will keep posting this until it happens.

Both of them are de jure Francia, what else do you want?

 

[Arcvalons]

I agree with bringing some of the better EU4 mechanics to CK2.

 

[Andrzej2]

Diplomatic mechanics from Eu4 such as coalitions and agressive expansion, normal alliances (for example limited by your and your's chancellors diplomatic skill) would be awesome. The main issue of Ck2 is snowballing and that AI countries are too peacefull (at least they rarely attacked me - maybe it't becouse i play too good though) towards strong player.

 

[Brannart]

Both of them are de jure Francia, what else do you want?

Having d_flanders and d_aquitaine a part of de jure e_francia doesn't fix the problem. The problem with the 1066 (and beyond) bookmarks is independent k_aquitaine title. The removal of k_aquitaine and the absorption of all ducal titles under it into k_france is the only solution as I see it.

As it stands now in the 1066 bookmarks Aquitaine always ends up independent and France always ends up disastrously weak. It almost always works in one of three ways:

King of France creates King of Aquitaine title, plot eventually fires to make France elective, another duke gains France title while the Capetians maintain the kingdom of Aquitaine.

-OR-

King of France creates King of Aquitaine title, a generation or two down the line a claimant conquers or is plotted into one of the two titles.

-OR-

A liberation war on Aquitaine begins, separating it from France permanently.

The result is always the same. France remains perpetually weak and is slowly gobbled up by the HRE.

 

[Lord Finnish]

...with great performance...

Not gonna hold my breath for this one.

 

[Nameless_Ensign]

Having d_flanders and d_aquitaine a part of de jure e_francia doesn't fix the problem. The problem with the 1066 (and beyond) bookmarks is independent k_aquitaine title. The removal of k_aquitaine and the absorption of all ducal titles under it into k_france is the only solution as I see it.

As it stands now in the 1066 bookmarks Aquitaine always ends up independent and France always ends up disastrously weak. It almost always works in one of three ways:

There is nothing wrong with k_aquitaine, it only makes sense a Kingdom can't fight off an Empire. If you don't want to be absorbed into the HRE then form Francia, it's not that hard if you sail up and take k_wales. Intermarry into the leading dynasty of the HRE so they will leave you alone, or marry into Aquintaine for a claim or alliance. It's very much doable.